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Rick Tatnall wants to improve the city’s website
07/20/2014 9:19 AM by John M
Rick Tatnall would like to enlist you in his next quest to improve Richmond:
This week Don Harrison interviewed me on Open Source RVA about the City website and my efforts to get it updated and relevant. In the interview I proposed a contest to help affect change, and I have decided to follow through with the idea. I am writing to introduce the Improve the City Website Initiative […]
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On the flip side, I use the city site on a near daily basis and would like to give kudos to a few sections that I’ve come to rely on: the Parcel Mapper, the GIS maps, the new meetings information page, the police department, and the Registrar’s Office.
TAGGED: Rick Tatnall
Clearly the most bizarre portion of the city website is the email links. Everyone knows city employees don’t read emails, or if they do they never respond, making it completely pointless to email them.
I second John’s props for parcel mapper also.
Alex, true… employees do not answer emails especially council members. If what you are saying goes against what they believe in forget it. It will never happen. I have yet to get a direct email answer from Newbille and even her sidekick Patterson is not so reliable. I remember when Delores McQuinn was our 7th and she was very obtainable. You could even call her at home on a Sunday if you wanted to. She was concerned about our district and lives here unlike Newbille who doesn’t care and had to move into a rental just to be able to be elected. I am all for someone else to take over her job. Too laidback even watching her during meetings on televisions. She doesn’t open her mouth about anything. Out of tune with her constituents and not interactive. I could do a better job and I am not even political.
The CAR is getting better with contacting people since Catherine Easterling came on board as James Hill could be confrontational as did Tyler Potterfield.
Please, is this effort only to “help affect change” or is there some hope that it might actually effect change?
I would think if the City approached BrandCenter creative technologist majors and partnered with Tumblr for an intensive summer internship program they could easily make one of the most useful and best designed municipal sites.
The only reason parts of the site are useful at all is if it’s tied to a database that other sites also access (for profit).
As a new parent trying to research school districts and relevant real estate information, I’ve never had a more frustrating experience. Of course other sites (Trulia, Zillow, etc.) are not accurate because the City database is outdated per the latest redistricting.
Group Wants to Expose City of Richmond’s Website Problems
http://www.wric.com/story/26074143/group-wants-to-expose-city-of-richmonds-website-problems